World’s’ oldest “pocket calendar” found in Serbia

Archaeologists speculate that the unusually decorated wild boar tusk found in Medvednjak near Smederevska Palanka, old about eight millennium?, is the first pocket calendar in the world.

Photo: Novosti

“On the outer part of the tusk that has curved form, there are four equally curved extensions, and on the inside there is 28 miniature triangular indentations carved. This corresponds to the cycle of months of 28 days and suggests that it was probably used as Lunar calendar on the tusk,” said prof. Dr. Milorad Stojic from the SANU Archaeological Institute.

He recalls that the calculation and classification of time based on the cycle phases of the Moon, in the opinion of the majority of experts, is the oldest calendar in the world.

“The lunar calendar has been in use for a very long time, since the Paleolithic Age. It is still used today, for example in monitoring the conception and development of the child and the like, but never and nowhere has been found such an explicit object as is it is the case with the object from Smederevska Palanka,” prof. Dr. Stojic said.

He believes that the discovery of this bone calendar opens up many questions about the Neolithic civilization in the Morava region, on whether humans 6,000 years BC used the lunar calendar to follow the natural cycles of sowing and reaping, or planning a family and follow pregnancy.